The present disclosure relates to energy management, and more particularly to power consuming device control methods and electrical energy consumption systems.
Many utilities are currently experiencing a shortage of electric generating capacity due to increasing consumer demand for electricity. Currently utilities generally charge a flat rate, but with increasing cost of fuel prices and high energy usage at certain parts of the day, utilities have to buy more energy to supply customers during peak demand. Consequently, utilities are charging higher rates during peak demand. If peak demand can be lowered, then a potential huge cost savings can be achieved and the peak load that the utility has to accommodate is lessened. In order to reduce high peak power demand, many utilities have instituted time of use metering and rates which include higher rates for energy usage during on-peak times and lower rates for energy usage during off-peak times. As a result, consumers are provided with an incentive to use electricity at off-peak times rather than on-peak times.
Presently, to take advantage of the lower cost of electricity during off-peak times, a consumer typically manually operates power consuming devices during the off-peak times. This is undesirable because the consumer may not always be present in the home to operate the power consuming devices during off-peak hours. This is also undesirable because the consumer is required to manually track the current time to determine what hours are off-peak and on-peak. One proposed third party solution is to provide a system where a controller “switches” the actual energy supply to the power consuming devices on/off and/or adjusts the energy supply to the power consuming devices. However, there is no active control beyond the mere on/off switching and/or adjustment. One difficulty of this method is that if the consumer is using the power consuming device as the utility switches to the peak demand and then inadvertently turns the power consuming device off, the energy supply to the power consuming device will be switched off and/or adjusted by the controller. In some instances, the consumer will have to wait until the peak demand period is over before full use of the power consuming device is available. In other instances, the consumer will be required to navigate through an oftentimes cumbersome override process to regain immediate full use of the power consuming device.